


I'm Falling for You

by Heartfiliadaydream



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: I just needed these two idiots falling in love, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, Lance also likes musicals, M/M, also I just really like puns, also im sorry and you'll know what i mean when you get to it, background shallura - Freeform, basically Lance is a christmas loving mess and it backfires on him slightly, blame hunk, except then he gets to meet keith, klance, lots of mistletoe, oh and theres mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 13:40:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8982229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heartfiliadaydream/pseuds/Heartfiliadaydream
Summary: Keith has Lance falling for him. As in literally falling. As in he now has a sprained ankle and a nice old cut on his side, which is pretty lucky considering he fell from the third floor.





	

**Author's Note:**

> In which I read a tumblr writing prompt thing about Christmas and I fell in love with this idea because Lance would totally be the kind of person who would do this.  
> Mostly un-beta'd but I just really wanted to get this out before Christmas

Keith loved the snow. It was and always had been the only constant in his life for the most part. No matter where he moved, where he was sent, the snow fell outside of his window at least once and he was reminded that some things never changed. Every year when the snow fell for the first time, he would sit by a window and just watch the snowflakes fall to the ground. Sometimes they melted on contact, sometimes they stuck and he could watch them pile on top of each other until the whole world outside was covered in a sheet of white. The cold didn’t bother him much and the snow was the most welcome part of it all. Every year without fail, he would watch nothing but snow fall from the sky.

Until one morning he was sitting by his apartment window watching the snow fall and something else fell with it.

Or, more like some _ one _ else.

Keith freaked out. He had just witnessed a body fall from somewhere above him and while he lived on the second floor and the fall from even one story above him was by no means an instant death fall, it would still hurt quite a bit, and he had no way of knowing how many stories this person had fallen from.

Opening his balcony door and rushing to look over the edge, he saw that the person, a man, had fallen into the bushes that lined the patios on the first floor. Keith could hear him groaning from where he was. At least he was still alive.

“Are you alright?!” Keith called down. Another groan was the only response. “Just hold on, I’m coming to help you!”

He pulled on a pair of boots and didn’t bother wasting time with a jacket before bounding down the stairs and out the side of the building. The man had rolled himself off the bushes and was now lying face down in the snow bank.

Keith ran over and asked, “does anything feel broken?” The man replied with a shake of his head. “In that case, I’m going to roll you over and help you up alright?”

The man nodded and Keith helped him sit up in the snow bank. “Thanks,” he said quietly, rubbing his ankle. “It was a little more slippery than I thought.”

“What were you doing?”

The man gestured up and Keith noticed a string of Christmas lights dangling from one of the windows in the apartment above his.

“Well at least you only fell from the third floor. Any higher and you could have seriously hurt yourself!” Giving him a once over he asked, “are you hurt anywhere?”

The man tried rolling the ankle he had been previous rubbing and winced. “I think it’s just a sprain.”

Keith sighed. “Come on, let’s get you back inside. Do you have first aid supplies?”

“Yea, but since I came from the window my apartment is kind of locked from the inside. It’s not like I carry keys in my pocket if I’m not leaving. I’ll have to call my roommate and see when he can be home.”

“Alright then, let’s head up to mine,” he said and helped the man up, holding him for support. “I’m Keith by the way.”

“Lance,” the man said. “Thanks man, I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t seen me.”

“Probably frozen to death or hurt yourself even further,” Keith replied and brought Lance around to the front door where they could take the elevators up. Normally he wouldn’t dream of taking an elevator up to the second floor, but seeing as Lance couldn’t walk very well, they didn’t have much of a choice.

When they got inside, Keith walked Lance over to his couch and told him to take off his sock so he could get a look. “Doesn’t look too bad, definitely not a break, but its swelling pretty quickly so we should get something on it right away.”

Keith went to get ice and brought it back, elevating Lance’s foot and placing the ice on his ankle. Lance hissed in pain at the contact.

“Anything else hurt?” Keith asked, giving Lance a more thorough look over to see if anything else was wrong.

“I don’t think so?” Lance said, unsure, but while he was looking around at himself to see if anything was hurt, he raised his arm and his shirt rode up, where Keith noticed a gash running up his side.

“Shit dude that doesn’t look too good,” he remarked and Lance looked at him in confusion before he put his arm back down. The shirt rubbing up against it made him yelp in surprise and he finally felt it.

“I didn’t even notice that,” Lance said quietly.

“Probably too focused on the pain in your ankle. Hold on a moment and I’ll grab something to clean and bandage it. Take your shirt off.”

Lance raised an eyebrow and Keith’s face turned red as he cried out, “so I can get a better look at you!” A smirk crossed Lance’s face and Keith flushed even further. “I meant the cut!”

Lance couldn’t help but laugh and Keith stalked off to his bathroom to get the first aid kit out from the cabinet.

“Dude you’re just too easy,” Lance said when Keith came back into the living room.

“Shut up and let me see your side,” Keith replied and took a look at it. His face was tinted pink from being so close to Lance’s very defined abs. “Doesn’t look too deep and pretty clean, it probably just caught on a branch in the bush. I’ll use some antiseptic on it anyway just to be safe. This will uh, probably sting a little bit.”

Keith rubbed the alcohol wipe on the cut and Lance cried out, “shit that hurts!” A few more hisses of pain came from him, but otherwise Lance was able to tough it out, Keith deftly bandaging it up.

“You seem to know your way around a first aid kit. What are you, a boy scout?”

Keith shrugged. “I try to keep my first aid training up to date. I don’t need it so much anymore, but it was kind of a requirement in the Air Force.”

Lance’s jaw dropped. “You’re in the Air Force?”

Keith shook his head. “Past tense. I, um, didn’t really do so well at the whole ‘following orders without question’ thing.”

Lance nodded quietly in understanding. “Yea I get that. I applied to the Air Force once, but you kind of need to have perfect vision and while I don’t  _ technically _ need glasses, it wasn’t good enough.”

“So what do you do then?”

“Oh, I’m uh- I just bartend right now. I’ve only been out of school for a little over a year so I’m applying to some other stuff since the whole Air Force thing didn’t pan out. Maybe when I can afford corrective surgery I’ll try again. But how about you?”

“Well I’m currently working as a mechanic at an auto shop. My specialty is motorcycles but I’m pretty familiar with most automobiles.”

“Wait, wait, wait; are you the one I see constantly riding around on that sweet red bike?” Lance asked so enthusiastically he winced in pain.

Keith tugged on his hair awkwardly and replied, “Yea I guess. I’ve spent a lot of time making her look good.”

“That’s awesome. All I’ve got is a dinky little blue neon my parents bought me for graduation. Kind of a rust bucket to be honest.”

“I could always take a look at it for you,” Keith blurted out. 

Lance lit up like the lights he had been hanging. “Would you? Man that would be sick, it’s kinda been making this rattling sound and while I’m not  _ too _ worried, it’d be good to have it looked at.”

“Rattling is usually a pretty easy fix,” Keith replied. “Now, why don’t you explain to me what  _ exactly _ it is you were doing when you fell-”

“From heaven?” Lance interrupted with a wink.

“From the third floor,” Keith responded flatly. “I got the Christmas lights thing, but how exactly is it that you just fell?”

“Well we put up lights on the balcony and I thought we needed more. So I tried to get some to hang from the balcony above us and I kind of slipped.”

“So you were being an idiot?”

“Rude! I was being  _ creative _ .”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Riiiiight, creative. Is that what we’re calling stupidity these days?”

“At least I don’t have a freaking mullet,” Lance mumbled, arms crossed.

“Resorted to making fun of my hair so quickly? Guess you aren’t as creative as you thought with a comeback like that.”

“Shut up. I’m being serious where are you from? Nineteen eighty four?”

“This is just the way my hair grows! For god’s sake, I save you after you fell from your apartment and this is the thanks I get?”

Lance laughed and Keith noticed he was still shirtless, trying not to ogle at the way his stomach clenched when he did. “Sorry, sorry, but like I said, you’re too easy. Seriously though, thank you. I actually don’t know how long I would have been out there without you coming to my rescue. And then you also offered to take a look at my car. What can I do to repay you?”

Keith thought about it. If he was being honest, he really didn’t want anything from Lance, he was just enjoying the company. The only people who ever came over anymore were Shiro and Allura. “You don’t need to do anything. I was just doing what I had to do.”

“Seriously, you practically saved my life. Hey I know, how about I buy you a drink. I do work at a bar. You can stop by after my shift this week or something.”

Keith wasn’t one to often go out, but somehow he ended up saying yes.

“Great!” Lance said with a wide smile, eyes sparkling. “Oh hey, I hate to intrude even more on your hospitality, but could you grab my phone from my sweater pocket? I need to text Hunk and let him know what happened.”

Keith figured Hunk must be Lance’s roommate or something. He did as he was asked, and grabbed his phone from the pocket of his sweater. He bit back a laugh when he saw Lance’s phone case, a picture of a robot in a sexy posing gracing the back of his phone. Trying to keep a straight face when he handed the phone back to its owner he said, “nice case.”

Lance smiled sheepishly, a blush dusting across his cheeks. “It was a gift,” he replied and swiped the screen before tapping several times and firing off a text. Within seconds his phone rang, a frantic voice coming through on the other line.

“Hunk-” Lance started but was cut off by more of the frantic voice. He looked at Keith and rolled his eyes, making Keith chuckle softly. “Bro, I’m fine. Just a sprained ankle and a cut.” More from Hunk. “I’m in the apartment below ours… Yea the guy saw me fall and came out to help me… No, my keys are still in the apartment… Let me just check,” Lance finished and then turned to Keith.

“Is it cool if I chill here till Hunk gets back? He’s at work and won’t be done for another hour.”

Keith nodded, “I’ve got today off so yea, you can stay.”

“Sweet, thanks so much,” Lance told him with a  smile. Turning his attention back to the phone he said, “You hear that Hunk? Yea, just come to apartment two-oh-six when you’re done and we can head up… thanks buddy see you soon.”

Lance hung up and returned to looking at Keith. “Seriously, thank you so much. I mean it, I need to find a way to repay you other than a drink. Although Hunk did mention inviting you over for dinner. He’s an insane cook so I think you’ll like it.”

“If you really feel like you need to. Honestly it’s kinda nice just to have some company,” Keith admitted.

“Do you not usually?”

“Just my brother and his girlfriend.”

“His girlfriend?”

“Hey she’s a very nice person. We have our own little connection. Which by that I mean we spend a lot of time shit talking my brother.”

“I have a shit talking friend like that. Usually it’s her just roasting me for no reason though.”

Keith smirked. “I can’t imagine why she’d do that,” he replied sarcastically.

“You don’t know my life.”

“I just watched you fall from a third story window.”

“Nobody asked you Billy Ray Cyrus.”

“Aaaand we’re back to the hair jokes.”

Both men laughed and Keith couldn’t help but watch Lance’s abs contract again and decided he really needed to get the other man back into a shirt before Keith had a nose bleed. No sense ruining this weird new friendship they’d just developed because Keith couldn’t keep his eyes to himself.

When he picked it up to hand it back to Lance however, he noticed the blood stain that had seeped onto it in the time they hadn’t noticed the wound.

“Ah shit, I really liked that shirt too,” Lance said when he noticed what Keith was looking at.

“If we deal with it now, it won’t stain. You can borrow something in the meantime?” Keith asked.

“That would be sweet, thanks.”

Keith went to find something for Lance to wear. He knew most of his things would be slightly too short on the taller man, but he managed to find a simple red long sleeve that looked like it would fit well enough stashed in the back of his closet. He returned to the living room and tossed it at him not even waiting to see if it really did fit before going to the bathroom to deal with the stained one.

Turning on the cold water, Keith filled the sink with it and rubbed the stain under the running water. He turned it off and left it to soak for a moment while he went to go find a stain remover in his hall closet. Thankfully, hidden behind the detergent he found a non-bleaching stain removed and set to work on getting it out.

Within minutes, the shirt was mostly stain free. There was a slight leftover outline of where the blood was, but only if you looked really close. Throwing some vinegar along with the shirt and detergent into his washing machine (his first large purchase after moving in; no way was he using the buildings facilities), he set it off and returned to the living room.

“It should be done before your roommate gets back but it looks like it’ll come out stain free,” Keith said and then noticed Lance with his shirt on.

He didn’t know if it was worse than being shirtless. While overall the fit was fine, Keith thought it was a little too fine, and Lance looked really good in red. It clung to his chest in all the right places and Keith cursed himself for choosing that shirt in particular.

“I’m glad the shirt fit,” he managed to choke out.

“Red’s not really my colour, but it fits well enough. Thanks by the way. For both this shirt and washing mine. Years of my mother teaching me how to do laundry, but I just could not get the stain removal lesson to stick in my head. Like are you supposed to use cold or hot water for blood?”

“Cold,” Keith replied.

“See? I would have used hot.”

“It’s a common misconception. I’ve always had to do my own laundry so I picked a few things up. Anyway, what do you wanna do till you have to leave? It’s not like you can move much.”

“Pizza? I’m starving. I’d offer to pay but my wallet is kind of upstairs.”

“It’s cool, pizza sounds good. I’ve got cable and Netflix,” Keith informed Lance and tossed the remote at him, “so you can put something on and I’ll call the pizza place. Hawaiian okay?”

“Dude, I live off that shit. Hunk is  _ from _ Hawaii and doesn’t like it, so I will take it where I can get it.”

Keith laughed and dialed the pizza place while Lance flipped through the TV channels. While Keith was on hold, Lance whooped from the living room. Keith saw that Lance had found the Grinch who Stole Christmas playing and put the remote down.

When Keith returned from ordering, he joined Lance on the couch, mindful of his ankle. “I hated this movie when I was little,” he commented.

Lance gasped. “How could you hate this classic story?”

Keith shrugged. “Well the first time I saw it I really loved the Grinch’s character. He reminded me a lot of me, and so when he suddenly ended up loving Christmas at the end I was like ‘well this is dumb’.”

“Keith are you perhaps… a Christmas Grinch yourself? Is that why you don’t have any decorations?”

“Calling me a Grinch or even a Scrooge is a little much, but I used to be. I  _ hated _ Christmas. I’m still not a huge fan, but I tolerate it now.”

“How can anyone hate Christmas?”

Keith realized he probably shouldn’t divulge his whole life’s story onto Lance since they just met, but he found Lance surprisingly easy to talk to. “I was an orphan, so Christmas wasn’t exactly the best time of my life. We got presents, and Santa was a thing, but there weren’t any individual gifts, there was just a bag and we shared. When I started living with a foster family, the first one wasn’t very nice and so we didn’t even celebrate it. The second and third were kind of pathetic and the fourth…” Keith stopped and shuddered at the memory of his fourth foster home. “Anyway, it wasn’t until I was sixteen and I started living with Shiro, my ‘brother,’ that we actually celebrated Christmas properly. It’s gotten better since then, but for a while I had a lot of resentment towards it.”

Lance’s mouth was open and gaping like a fish when Keith finished his story and looked at him. “Okay, dude, I know it’s already halfway through December but I’m making it my mission to make sure you have the most kick ass Christmas ever. That is going to be my payment for you saving my life.”

A knock at the door stopped Keith from saying whatever he was about to say. “That’s way too soon for the pizza to be here,” he commented.

Gazing through the peephole, Keith saw a short person standing at his door and said person knocked again. Opening his door he asked, “Can I help you?”

“Is Lance here?” they asked.

“Pidge is that your tiny voice I hear?” Lance called from the couch. The person, Pidge as Keith now knew, walked right past him into his apartment. “What are you doing here?”

“I stopped by to hang out and no one answered the door. I called Hunk and he told me where I could find you.” Turning to Keith she said, “thanks for saving this idiot. I’m Pidge.”

“Nice to meet you I guess,” Keith said. Something about this person was really familiar but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“Lance what the quiznack were you doing?” Pidge asked, sitting down where Keith had been previously.

“No, by all means strange person, make yourself at home,” Keith mumbled too quietly for either of his guests to hear while he closed the door.

“Just trying to put up some lights. You know, make it more festive and stuff.”

“You couldn’t be more festive if you shat out tinsel,” Pidge told him and Keith couldn’t help but laugh. “Even your host thinks it’s funny. I didn’t catch your name by the way.”

“It’s Keith.”

Pidge seemed to think about his answer for a moment then she looked like she’d had an epiphany. “Wait, I know you! You’re Shiro’s brother aren’t you?”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “And how did you know…” he trailed off and looked at her for a moment. “Wait, what’s your last name?”

“Holt.”

Then it hit him. “Oh my god you’re Matt’s sister. I knew you looked familiar but the short hair and glasses threw me off. Last picture I saw you were like, twelve.”

Lance looked between them for a moment, not understanding what had just happened. “What’s going on?”

Pidge turned to look at him. “This is Matt’s best friend’s brother. You know that one story Matt tells about his friend and his brother where they got so shitfaced that his friend’s girlfriend had to carry both of them home?”

Lance’s eyes went wide and he turned them to Keith. “That was you?”

“I cannot fucking believe Shiro told Matt that story."

Pidge laughed. “That right there tells me how drunk you guys were considering Matt was  _ there _ .”

“What?” Keith asked. “Shit, I didn’t even know. That was so embarrassing, I remember our parents were so pissed but they let it go because they were just shocked that Allura was able to carry us both home.”

Looking over at Lance, Keith thought he was dying. He was clutching his sides and laughing so hard he was practically silent and had to stop to catch his breath. When he had calmed down a bit he said, “I can’t even right now. That’s the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. I honestly thought Matt was exaggerating that part.” He went into another fit of laughter but doubled over in pain when he moved the wrong way and irritated his wound.

“So care to tell me exactly what happened to land you here with a sprained ankle?” Pidge asked. “Hunk just told me you’d hurt yourself and that you were in this apartment.”

“Well funny story actually…” Lance said and looked anywhere but his friend.

Keith supplied Pidge with the information, explaining how he was minding his own business before he witnessed a body falling from the sky. Pidge couldn’t help but laugh and when she thought she’d laughed enough, she watched Lance huff and was sent back into fits of giggles.

Keith was blown away by the small world they lived in. Shiro had become friends with Matt in university and Matt’s sister was friends with his neighbors from the floor above him.

There was a knock at the door again and Keith went over, wallet in hand for the pizza.

“Pidge, you like Hawaiian?” he asked, bringing it over to the coffee table.

“I’ll pick off the pineapple. Fruits don’t have a place on pizza.”

“Pineapple on pizza is delicious you little gremlin,” Lance said. Said ‘gremlin’ leaned forward and lightly pressed on Lance’s foot, moving his ankle. “Shit Pidge! What the fuck?”

“Call me that one more time and see what happens,” she replied with a too innocent smile.

“You kinda deserved that one,” Keith told Lance who was lying down and looking dramatically wounded on the couch.

Pidge raised her hand for a high five, and Keith supplied. Lance grumbled and turned his attention to the TV and pizza.

The three of them sat and ate the pizza, watching the rest of the Grinch and half of Frosty the Snowman before Hunk showed up at Keith’s door.

He came in and immediately ran to Lance, checking out his ankle and his side, fretting over him like a mother hen. Keith was a little shocked with the amount of people currently occupying his apartment, but he couldn’t say it was a bad feeling.

Leaning over to Pidge, Keith asked in a whisper, “is he crying?”

“Probably. Hunk is a very emotional person,” she whispered back.

Keith nodded and accepted this information without further question.

“I’ve never seen you wear that shirt before,” Hunk said.

“Oh, it’s uh, not mine. Keith lent it to me since mine got blood on it.”

Keith was unnerved by the smile Pidge was giving him.

“Oh shit, I should probably throw that in the dryer.”

“You did his laundry?” Pidge asked, smile growing wider.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Keith mumbled. Louder he replied, “blood stains easily. Just making sure it didn’t set or anything.”

Without waiting for an answer, he went to go throw the shirt in the dryer, unable to hear what the other three were talking about in hushed tones from the living room. All three glanced at him when he came back in the room.

Hunk walked up to him and pulled him into a bone crushing hug. “Thank you so much for taking care of him. You’ll have to come for dinner sometime this week.”

“It was,  _ oof _ , no problem,” he said and Hunk put him down. “Uh… you guys are welcome to stay and hang out for a bit until Lance’s shirt is dry. We still have the rest of this movie to watch.”

All three of them nodded and got comfy, Lance and Pidge occupying the couch and Hunk settling into the large chair next to it. That left nowhere but the floor for Keith, but Lance wasn’t having it.

“I know we barely know each other, but you practically cradled me in your arms, so just come get cozy on the couch,” Lance said and very carefully scooted forward so Keith could squeeze himself between the injured man and the armrest. Lance leaned against him and adjusted himself comfortably to watch the movie. Keith pulled out his phone to text Shiro.

**_Keith_ **

_ Just met Matt’s sister. Her friends live above me. I don’t think I’ve ever had this many people in my apartment before??? _

**_Shiro_ **

_ Really? That’s nice, Pidge is a great person. You’ll have to fill me in on why they’re all over at yours later, I’m busy at work. But I do want to hear this story! _

Keith put his phone away and was acutely aware of how warm Lance was against him. He hoped the heat he felt in his face wasn’t painfully obvious to any of them as these new people didn’t seem like the type to let anything go. He had a hard time paying attention the whole movie, Lance’s breathing against him making him on edge. He was not usually this close to people, especially not people like Lance.

When the movie finally finished, no one made an immediate effort to move from their spots in Keith’s living room.

They talked a little, getting to know more about each other, and Keith asking about the strange noises above him at ridiculous hours. Turns out Hunk has a habit of sleepwalking sometimes and knocking into some of their furniture, and Lance often came home late from the bar.

“Man your couch is so much more comfortable than ours,” Lance commented. “Ours is lumpy and I swear there’s an entire dust bunny colony living in it.”

“That’s because it’s an ancient one. It’s got that ugly floral pattern from like, the fifties on it,” Hunk replied. “We should just be lucky your mom let us have it.”

“She only did that because she was itching to get a new one and that gave her the perfect excuse for it. This one looks almost as new as the one she bought!”

“Well it’s hardly even a year old,” Keith supplied.

Lance and Hunk stared a Keith for a moment. Pidge leaned over so she could see Keith’s face over Lance’s body and told him, “I hope you realize you’ve basically just made it so they’re going to be watching TV here a lot. They hate their couch.”

Keith shrugged. “That’s fine. You guys are welcome to come and use it anytime, I guess. I mean, I’m at work a lot, but when I’m not, it’s not like I’m using the whole thing.”

Hunk leaned forward to give Lance a high five, and the injured man tried to reach but was unable to. “Air five!” he called instead and the two high fived the air between each other.

Hunk was the first to make a move to stand. “Thanks for helping Lance and for having us intrude on you like this, but I’ve got work in the morning and Lance does tomorrow evening.” To Lance he said, “Looks like you’re going to have to stand behind the bar in one place the whole night.”

Lance shrugged. “Coran won’t be happy, but I’ll just tell him I hurt myself doing something not totally stupid.”

Keith removed himself from behind Lance and went to get the shirt from the dryer, hearing Pidge ask Lance, “So you admit that it was totally stupid?”

Bringing the dry shirt back out to Lance, he quickly changed and handed Keith’s shirt back to its owner, Keith sneaking in one last glance at Lance’s shirtless form. “Thanks bro.”

Breathily Keith replied, “anytime.”

The three friends said their goodbyes and headed back upstairs, leaving Keith to his quiet apartment once more, and he missed the way they made his apartment feel less lonely.

When the hell had he decided he was lonely anyway? He used to love the solitude of his own apartment.

He shrugged to no one but himself and took the shirt Lance was wearing, trying to decide if it was even worth washing since it had only been worn for a couple of hours.  _ No use wasting a clean enough shirt,  _ he thought and threw it into his closet. 

Upstairs, Hunk and Pidge grilled Lance for details since they were no longer in front of Keith.

“So what happened before we got there? He seemed kind of flustered,” Pidge asked.

Lance looked at them with genuine confusion on his face. “What do you mean? Nothing happened. He helped me up to his apartment and then cleaned up my cut. Also, Hunk you remember that guy we always see around driving that beautiful smoke show of a motorcycle and I swore that I would tap that ass like a maple tree?”

“Yes?”

“That’s Keith. Keith is the owner of that bike.”

“Holy shit Lance.”

“So what you’re saying,” Pidge started with a grin, “is that he was up close and personal with your abs?”

“Yea, I guess?”

Hunk and Pidge shared a look but it was Hunk who spoke. “Dude for someone who claims to have a stellar gaydar, you sure missed out.”

“My gaydar works perfectly fine thank you very much.”

“Lance, our poor bisexual friend, Keith is as gay as a rainbow,” Pidge told him. “I could tell that much even without the information provided by my brother.”

“Wait, so he’s into guys?” Lance asked, hoping he didn’t sound too enthusiastic.

Hunk put a hand on his shoulder. “More specifically it looks like he’s into you. Why are you so surprised mister ‘tapping that ass’?”

“I dunno…”

“Pretty sure he almost combusted when he sat with you up against him on the couch. Most straight guys aren’t into the touching thing you do,” Lance was about to open his mouth but Hunk continued, “I say most, the way I am with you is different.”

“You really think so?” Lance asked them both. They nodded. “Alright then. Keith  _ is _ pretty cute and I may have developed a small crush on him in the last couple hours.”

“Knew it,” Pidge stated.

Lance smiled sheepishly, embarrassed that his friends could read him so easily, but was excited at the prospect of getting to know Keith a little better. He would have wanted to even if he hadn’t found out Keith’s sexual preference, but knowing there was a possibility of something more made him giddy.

After all, anyone who could make a mullet look good was worth getting to know.

 

The following morning, Lance got Hunk to pull down the Christmas lights he hadn’t managed to finish putting up the day before. Hunk shook his head, but pulled them back into their apartment, wondering aloud if Keith had been able to see them hanging in front of his window.

“Shit!” Lance cried out, startling Hunk. “I never got Keith’s phone number!”

“Dude,” Hunk said with a glare that held no malice. “You scared the shit out of me for that? He lives right downstairs, I’m sure you could go ask him right now.”

Lance frowned, knowing he  _ could _ but he was trying to stay off his ankle for as long as possible before he had to work tonight. Shuffling over to the open window, Lance had an idea and made his way over to the coffee table. “Can you grab me some paper and that climbing rope that we definitely do not have for bondage reasons and strictly for no other reason than the potential of going rock climbing?” he asked.

Hunk shook his head and sighed, but grabbed what he asked for and brought it to him. Lance took a marker and scribbled down something on the paper before poking a hole in it and looping the rope through it. Hobbling back over to the window, he leaned out of slightly and let the rope slide through his fingers until he was sure it was hanging in front of the window to Keith’s living room. Hunk watched and waited until Lance’s phone vibrated.

“Yes!” Lance cried out and grabbed it. Hunk went and looked over his shoulder at the text on his friend’s phone reading,

**_(unknown number)_ **

_ Hey Lance, it’s Keith. You know you could have just come down and asked right? _

Lance pulled the paper back up and Hunk was able to read what is said.  _ Keith send me a text so I have your number! –Lance _ followed by his own phone number. Hunk watched as Lance texted him back, laughing when he received another one from the man downstairs.

Lance was off in his own world, so Hunk left for work without so much as a goodbye. 

 

Lance texted Keith pretty relentlessly over the course of the following two days, but Keith couldn’t bring himself to mind. Sometimes it was a real conversation but mostly it was nonsensical stuff. Like when he texted at 3 am wondering if they saw the same colour of red or if the colour Lance saw as red was what Keith saw as blue, but they both called it red because that’s what they were brought up to learn.

**_Lance (3:15am)_ **

_ Seriously though the whole thing blows my mind _

**_Keith (3:16am)_ **

_ Maybe that’s why people have different favorite colours cause they see brown as blue or something _

**_Lance (3:25am)_ **

_ Dude sorry I had to collect myself for a moment cuz you just BLEW MY FUCKING MIND _

Okay so maybe Keith wasn’t exactly telling Lance to stop and may have been enabling him a little, but Keith had forgotten what it was like to be in constant contact with someone, even though it had been just under 48 hours since he’d received Lance’s window message. He’d even finally told Lance he was going to make good on his promise of having a drink at the bar, and Lance told him Hunk was going to cook for them before they went.

He had yet to talk to Shiro about the whole thing even though he had several missed calls and about a million texts. He wanted to wait until he could explain what happened without sounding like a love struck sixteen year old.

Tuesday night rolled around and Keith walked up the flight of stairs to the third floor until he was standing in front of the door to apartment 306. He knocked and from behind the door he could hear frantic uneven footsteps growing louder until the door was flung open by Lance himself.

“Come on in!” He exclaimed with a smile and stepped aside, mindful of his sprained ankle.

Keith felt like he’d been hit in the face with the North Pole and suddenly Pidge’s shitting tinsel comment made so much more sense. Their apartment was decorated like it was a department store with how many decorations they had out, but what stood out the most of all was the tree set up in the corner of their living room. They weren’t allowed real trees due to them being a fire hazard, but Keith was sure he’d never seen a fake tree as large as theirs anywhere but in a mall, top grazing the ceiling. It was surprisingly colour coordinated minus a few ornaments that looked handmade, mostly decorated in blues and gold, all the way up to the shining crystal star sitting at the top.

Overall their apartment was set up similar to his own, save for the ugly floral couch not matching any of their other furniture. Though it was hard to tell what their other furniture looked like when it was covered in Christmas decorations. They had stockings hanging above the sliding glass doors out to their balcony and both coffee and dining tables had elaborate table runners lining them. Their apartment was fairly put together which surprised Keith given Lance’s very scattered nature, but he figured Hunk probably kept him in line, the several times Lance referred to him as “mom” giving Keith an idea of what their relationship was like.

“Welcome to  _ nuestra casa _ ,” Lance said once Keith had spent some time taking it all in.

“Hey Keith!” Hunk called from the kitchen. He was listening to Bing Crosby’s soothing voice sing White Christmas and Keith was unsure how to feel about the whole atmosphere. It was like something straight out of a Hallmark Christmas movie.

“Hey Hunk,” he called back. “What’s on the menu for tonight?”

“Nothing too fancy, just some pasta.”

Lance scoffed. “Just pasta he says. The noodles might be ‘just pasta’ but god dammit Keith, if the sauce he’s making to go on it doesn’t give your taste buds an orgasm, then you probably don’t have any to begin with.”

Keith couldn’t help but smile at Lance and retort, “Taste buds or orgasms? Cause I’m pretty familiar with both.”

The noise Lance made, coupled with the look and the colour taking over his face made Keith realize how that’s not something that you usually say to someone you barely know. Hunk’s boisterous laughter from the other room gave him the confidence for his façade not to falter however.

“I kinda walked into that one didn’t I?” Lance said with a smirk.

“He totally got you there,” Hunk added.

Not one to be outdone in the embarrassment department, Lance leaned over until he was millimeters from Keith’s face and whispered, “I bet you aren’t familiar with the kind I could give you though.”

All joking melted away from Keith and he failed to repress a shudder when chills from the heavy tone in Lance’s voice ran up his spine. Lance didn’t falter and stayed where he was, looking at Keith with bright blue eyes that were dark with something else. When Hunk rounded the corner, food in hand, Keith coughed and moved away from his host, trying to piece together what had just happened between the two of them.

When he looked back, Lance acted like he hadn’t said anything, eyes focused on the food.

“You okay buddy?” Hunk asked him and Keith nodded, not trusting his voice at that moment for fear it would be hoarse with whatever had just transpired. Was Lance trying to come on to him?

All was forgotten the moment Keith took a bite of Hunk’s pasta sauce. “Oh my god, you’re right this is the best fucking pasta sauce I have ever had in my life.”

“Didn’t I tell you? Hunk may be an engineer by day, but by night he’s secretly the best cook on the planet.”

“Hunk, I want you to know that I am a pretty solitary person by nature, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t marry you,” Keith told him.

Hunk laughed. “Sorry dude, Lance has already called dibs on my being his housewife, and that’s only if Shay ever breaks up with me.”

Lance filled Keith in when he looked confused saying, “Shay is Hunk’s girlfriend who goes to school in Colorado.”

Keith nodded in understanding and the three of them ate until there was nothing left of Hunk’s cooking.

“Alright, quick ten minute siesta and then we hit the town!” Lance exclaimed.

“If by hit the town you mean find somewhere we can drink while you sit down the whole night,” Keith replied.

Lance pouted. “Killjoy. I know that, we’re just going over to Voltron, the bar I work at where there are plenty of places to sit. Don’t worry, Coran has already yelled at me about hurting myself. I have my own stool behind the bar. Don’t worry though; I’m not working tonight so I’ll be able to keep all my attention on you.”

Keith turned to Hunk. “Give it to me straight. Am I going to regret going out with Lance?”

“As a friend? Probably not. On a date? Most definitely.”

“Hunk!” Lance screeched. “How could you say that? I am an excellent date partner.” Hunk opened his mouth to respond but Lance quickly said, “ _ don’t even bring up that time with Sara _ ,” and Hunk shut it. “Besides this isn’t a date, this is just me repaying Keith for saving my life.”

“Whatever you say Lance,” Hunk replied and Lance blushed.

“It’s not!” he insisted. Even though he kind of wished it was, he had no way of knowing that Keith wanted the same thing, and as such, did not want to put any pressure on their new friend. 

Keith smiled and shook his head at Lance’s exasperation, making a move to help clean up.

“Oh dude, don’t worry about it,” Hunk said with a wave of his hand.

Keith continued to clean up anyway. “Well it doesn’t look like Lance is in a fit state to help and it’s the least I can do for the orgasm my taste buds just had,” he said, looking pointedly at Lance.

Lance pretended not to notice, but Keith could see the colour in his cheeks.

“Come on, let’s get going!” Lance pulled Keith out of their apartment and down to the parking lot.

“Uh Lance? If we’re going for a drink, don’t you think it’s best not to drive?”

“It’s cool. We drive there and cab back. I’ve got a parking spot out back and this way it’s cheaper,” Lance explained and showed Keith to where his car was parked. Keith was glad he wasn’t going to regret offering to look at Lance’s car after getting a look at it.

All things considered it wasn’t in bad shape, rusting a little around the wheel wells and in need of a wash, but otherwise nice enough. When Lance started the car, he could hear the rattling that had been mentioned which didn’t sound too bad and was only present when the car was moving.

He focused his attention back onto the driver, thankful it had been his left foot that was sprained, still allowing him to drive.

“So how long ago did you start working at the bar?” Keith asked, trying to make small talk.

“Pretty much since I turned twenty-one. I worked at a restaurant before then where I met the owner of Voltron, Coran. He was a regular at the restaurant I worked at and had just opened the bar up, so when I told him I was only twenty at the time, he asked me to give him a call the minute I was old enough to work for him. So, on my twenty-first birthday I called him up and quit working at the restaurant. Gotta say it was a great decision. The tips at the bar from drunk people are way better than the ones stuffy people in suits give. What about you?”

“What about me?”

Lance laughed. “When did you decide you wanted to be a mechanic?”

“Well it wasn’t a decision so much as it was convenient I guess?” Keith shrugged even though Lance had his eyes on the road. “I spent a lot of time learning about the parts of planes and it was easy enough to get the hang of cars and as for bikes… I built one from scratch with Shiro when I was seventeen, so I’ve got lots of experience with that. The hours are good, nice and flexible, and the pay lets me live comfortably.”

“So you’re just naturally talented at like, everything you do is what you’re saying?”

Keith was going to respond with a serious answer but stopped himself when he saw the look on Lance’s face, realizing he was joking around. “Well not everything, I’ve never really been good at dancing.”

“Boy, if my ankle wasn’t bum I would teach you a thing or two and fix that problem. Your hips look like they’d move well.”

They arrived at the bar a few minutes later, the large “Voltron” sign hanging out front, where the letter were all in varying neon colours with the exception of the “t” which was shaped like a giant sword. Lance pulled around back and slowly made his way through the back door, Keith trailing behind him.

“Coran! My main man!” Lance calls out to the man working behind the bar.

“Lance! I don’t think you’re scheduled to work tonight are you?” The   
man Keith figured must be Coran responded. His hair is shockingly orange, with   
an equally as bright mustache to match and his accent suggested he was from   
Australia or New Zealand.

“Nah I’m just here with my new buddy Keith showing him the place. It is the best bar in the city after all.”

Coran laughed. “Flattery won’t get you a raise my boy!”

Lance feigned being hurt by his words. “I would  _ never _ !”

The two men laughed and Keith felt a little awkward, not knowing whether to laugh along or not. They stopped after a moment and Lance gestured for Keith to sit at the bar with him. “Okay so step one in operation ‘De-grinch-ify Keith’ was inviting you into my well decorated home.”

“Operation de-grinch-ify Keith?” Keith asked with a raised brow.

Ignoring the question, Lance continued, “and now step two is holiday themed beverages. Starting with the ever famous Polar Bear shot which is not so much holiday as it is wintery, though they are delicious year round. A beautifully crafted choco-mint treat meant to warm your heart and keep your breath fresh.”

Coran took this as a sign to pour them each a shot of it. Keith watched him grab a bottle of mint and chocolate liqueur respectively and poured half a shot of each into both glasses.

Lance grabbed both shots and handed one to Keith with a, “bottoms up!” and downed it. Keith followed suit and found that it tasted like if someone were to liquefy a thin mint Girl Scout cookie.

“Not bad,” Keith concluded. “Though it’s pretty tasty so I don’t know why you’d wanna just have a shot of it instead of actually taste it.”

“It’s an easy way to get fucked up quickly. Tasty enough you don’t realize how much alcohol you’re consuming.”

“Right then. What’s next on the menu then?”

Lance smiled so brightly Keith briefly wondered if he should have brought sunglasses with him. “I am so glad you asked. Coran! Some peppermint white Russians  _ por favor _ !”

“Two white Russians coming up! Just don’t finish these too quickly, I do have other customers to attend to you know.”

Keith took an experimental sip and was surprised to find it didn’t taste all that bad, and told Lance as much.

“What kind of stuff do you normally drink?” 

“To be honest, I’m kind of good with anything but my go-to is a trusty rum and coke,” Keith told him.

“BO-ring,” Lance drawled. “Good thing I’m introducing you to all this new stuff then.”

“I said it was my go-to, but I drink a lot of other stuff. Shit like this,” he said gesturing to the drink in his hand, “is delicious but like, insanely fattening and hangover inducing. My hangovers are seriously bad, so don’t take it personally if I hate you for the next week when I can’t get out of bed in the morning.”

“Well I for one, don’t get hangovers so maybe if you’ll lucky I’ll fall onto your balcony this time and cook you a hangover breakfast. Hunk’s special recipe.”

Keith couldn’t help but think about how oddly domestic that sounded, having Lance cook him breakfast the morning after. Which immediately led to him thinking about how that morning after could have come to be, sans balcony hopping, and he took a quick sip of his drink to hide his reddening face.

Lance took notice of Keith’s odd behavior towards what he’d said, but made no comment towards it. Instead he engaged Keith in talk of further Christmas plans he had.

“Why are you doing this? You barely know me and yet you want to make Christmas the best thing ever for me,” Keith asked,

Lance shrugged. “Christmas is supposed to be the happiest time of the year. Or Hanukkah or whatever people celebrate. I know you said you’ve got your brother and everything but there’s just something that makes me want to see you happy and enjoying it all.”

Keith looked at Lance trying to decipher what the look he was giving meant. The two kept eye contact and hadn’t noticed they’d been moving closer.

“You’ve got the most interesting eye colour, you know that? It’s almost like an indigo or violet. They’re really pretty,” Lance said and Keith could feel Lance’s breath on his face. He smelled of alcohol and mint which made sense given what they’d been drinking.

Keith was so flustered by this comment he slipped off his chair. He looked up at Lance who looked back down at him for a moment before they both burst into fits of laughter, the moment gone. Keith couldn’t help but think about it more as the night progressed though. It was the second time that evening that they’d had a moment like that and he couldn’t help but wonder what it meant, and the frequent little touches from Lance were confusing him.

It wasn’t until they’d had their fifth drink and Keith was thoroughly drunk that it hit him.

“Oh my god, you’re flirting with me,” he whispered with wide eyes, interrupting Lance’s story about a girl handcuffing him to a tree in first year.

Whatever Lance had been about to say died on his tongue and he mirrored Keith’s wide eyes, having heard what he’d said despite having said it quietly in the loud bar. He was embarrassed at having been called out on it for a moment, but tried to play it off.

“Took you this long to notice?”

Keith’s complexion turned redder than a ripe tomato. “It just doesn’t happen often.”

Lance gaped at him. “ _ How? _ ” he asked incredulously. “Keith you’re fucking gorgeous, how does no one flirt with you?”

If Keith could have blushed further he would have. “Well that’s not totally true I guess. Just…  _ guys _ don’t usually flirt with me and the difference between the way they do it and the way girls do it is different. You don’t exactly have hair to flip around.”

“Having been flirted with by my fair share of both,” Keith snorted and Lance huffed but continued, “I’ve learned to have the right mix. Subtle things a girl would do…” he trailed off, eyes blinking slowly and looking at Keith through half lidded eyes, much the same as he had been doing before dinner. “As well as things guys would do.” He raised his hand a tucked a stray piece of hair behind Keith’s ear.

Lance smiled and let out a small giggle at Keith’s open mouth and still wide eyes. “You, umm…” Keith tried, but couldn’t get his brain to form words in his mouth.

“So do you get flirted with by girls often then?” Keith looked away and Lance honestly couldn’t figure out if that was a yes or a no. “Keeeeeith,” he said in a sing-song voice.

Keith mumbled out a “yes unfortunately,” and Lance could feel his heart soaring, having finally confirmed from the man himself where is preferences lie.

“Well fortunately for you, you’ve got a hot piece of ass flirting with you now.”

Keith looked up quickly, his head darting back and forth, looking around. “Where?”

Lance would have been offended if not for Keith bursting into a bout of laughter. “You should have se-seen your face!” He choked out.

Lance smirked and leaned forward until he was eye to eye with Keith again. “My face is pretty nice to see isn’t it? Maybe you should tell me about it.”

Keith’s laughter died down and he found himself unable to find words again. Curse Lance and his ability to bounce back like that. Lance kept his smirk fixed on the man in front of him, but something caught Keith’s eye from over Lance’s shoulder, making his eyes fill with dread.

Lance noticed the shift in mood and went to turn, but Keith held out his hand and grabbed Lance’s face before it could turn all the way around. “Don’t turn,” Keith told him.

“Why not? What did you see?”

“There’s a girl behind you, someone I used to go out with in high school. She um, didn’t take very well to me breaking up with her even when I explained to her that it wasn’t  _ really _ because of her that we needed to break up. I haven’t seen her in a while, but she spread some nasty rumors.”

“So why are you worried? That was in high school.”

Keith shook his head and avoided looking Lance in the eye. “There may have been another incident where another one of her boyfriends a couple years later who was going through a very, uh, let’s call it  _ experimental _ phase. He’d heard through her rumors that I was the kind of person he’d have been looking for and she caught us in a very compromising position. I tried to explain to her that it wasn’t my fault but she was pretty pissed.”

Lance nodded in understanding, having seen that kind of thing happen at his own high school. “So what do you want to do?”

“Hopefully she won’t notice-oh my god I think she’s coming over here.” Keith started to panic.

Lance tried to think of something to do but before he knew it, the girl was standing in front of them, hand on hip, eyes glaring daggers at Keith.

“Kogane. Funny running into you here,” she said, voice smooth but laced with venom.

“Small world,” he replied, equally as venomous, startling Lance after having seen him panicking only moments earlier.

“How’ve you been? Still stealing boyfriends?”

Keith laughed and immediately knew this was not a conversation he was ready to have when he was drunk, but of course this conversation was when his brain kicked back in. “I’m not sure what you mean since I’ve never done that.”

Seeming to finally notice Lance sitting next to Keith with his hand on his thigh, the girl asked, “oh, did he steal you away from some poor unsuspecting girl as well?”

If Lance thought he was pissed at this girl for talking to Keith like she had been, then the idea of her questioning his ability to be monogamous (even if she didn’t know his sexuality) made him  _ livid _ . “Sorry but I’m a very committed kind of guy. Though I can imagine that if you’re always like you have been in the last two minutes, I can’t say I blame someone for leaving you for him.” Turning his attention to Keith he said, “babe, I really can’t blame you for not liking girls if these are the kinds of girls you know.”

Keith couldn’t help but hold back a surprised face when Lance called him babe, but a wink in his direction had him catching on quickly.

Lance could see Keith holding back a smile from the corner of his eye.

“God you sicken me,” she told them. “I hope you heathens are happy with each other.”

Keith was suddenly seeing red, and stood to say more choice words at her, but Lance put a hand on his shoulder, hoping to stop him from doing something stupid. He elected to sit back down and turn back towards the bar, ignoring the scoff and listened her retreating footsteps behind him.

“I can kick her out if you’d like,” Coran commented, having heard the conversation.

“No, no it’s fine. I just had a bad memory of her saying something similar one time,” he told Coran. To Lance he said, “that’s kind of why even though it was so long ago she’s still like this. She grew up in a very religious household. Thank you for doing that though. You didn’t need to pretend to be my boyfriend or date or whatever.”

Lance shrugged. “Nine times out of ten it’s the easiest way to get someone to back off.”

“Can I ask why you got so mad though? She wasn’t even directing her hate at you when you said that.”

“I know she was referring to a specific situation, but I get really frustrated with people who assume that I can’t be monogamous. That I’m going to cheat on whatever partner I’m with.”

“I’m sorry.”

Lance shook his head and smiled. “It’s not your fault. She’s just got some issues to work out. Can’t be easy having two boyfriends turn out to be not hetero. Hey Coran? One more drink for the road please! And maybe a cab.”

Keith appreciated Lance’s change of subject and drank the last of Coran’s Christmas drinks for the evening before the two of them hopped into a cab and headed home.

Standing in front of the elevator, Keith wasn’t looking forward to leaving Lance just yet. After the incident at the bar, he just wanted to spend more time with him and learn all about it. He kind of wanted to invite him over. 

“Are you going to be alright getting to your apartment on your own?” He asked instead.

Lance looked at him a little nervously, but a loopy smile replaced it and he said, “I was actually wondering if you maybe wanted to come up for a little bit. I know it’s late, but I’m pretty sure they’re playing Rudolph on TV tonight.”

Keith returned the smile. “I’d love to.”

The two went up the elevator to the third floor in comfortable silence, but to say the air wasn’t thick with some sort of tension would be a lie.

Despite having been in their apartment a few hours earlier, Keith was still a little blown back by the amount of Christmas in it, even more so when he was assaulted by the new addition of the smell of peppermint.

“Hunk and I love our Bath and Body Works candles,” Lance offered as an explanation. “Uh, make yourself at home? I’m going to make some hot chocolate. Did you want some?” Keith noded. “Cool. Hunk isn’t home, he stays over at Pidge’s sometimes when they get in the zone.”

The thought that him and Lance were drunk and alone in the apartment made Keith’s heart race, and he tried to calm it down while flipping through the the TV guide until he found the channel Lance had mentioned Rudolph would be playing on.

He mostly distracted himself with this until Lance sat next to him on the small loveseat, his pulse thrown back out of whack and had a mug of hot chocolate placed in his hands.

“Please tell me you at least like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?”

Keith shrugged. “I was indifferent. I got where he was coming from about the wanting to be like everyone else part at least. Not so much the ‘embracing differences’ part.”

“You must be a joy at parties,” Lance deadpanned.

“Parties?” Keith asked. Lance whipped his head around to look at him and saw the small smile playing on his lips. 

“Oh so you can make non-lewd jokes?”

“Why what ever do you mean?” 

Lance punched Keith lightly in the shoulder. “Don’t do shit like that, I almost spilled my hot chocolate.”

“Speaking of which, you didn’t put Bailey’s in here did you?”

“I would never!” Lance replied indignantly. When Keith raised an eyebrow, Lance smiled and assured him, “no, really. No Bailey’s… just some peppermint kahlua, now shh, trying to watch the movie.”

Keith rolled his eyes and brought his legs up on the couch, crossing them, one leg resting on Lance’s due to lack of overall space on their small couch, but Lance didn’t seem to mind. 

The following commercial break, Keith asked, “is your bathroom in the same place as mine? Just down the hall?”

Lance nodded and Keith made a quick trip over to it. He was mildly surprised by the number of face products that lined their sink and wondered if it was Hunk or Lance that cared for their face that much. Probably Lance. 

He could see both of their personalities in their bathroom though; in the matching blue and yellow bath towels hanging from the back of the door, the paintings of beaches hanging on the wall across the from the toilet, and especially in the robot covered shower curtain. He briefly wondered if other people could tell a lot about him from his own bathroom. It probably screamed ‘I’m a boring person.’

He left the bathroom, heading back towards the living room only to be stopped by Lance who was emerging from what Keith could assume was his own bedroom, carrying an extra blanket.

They stopped and smiled at each other, Keith watching Lance’s eyes drift up above his head and widen slightly. Keith followed his gaze and mimicked his reaction when he noticed the mistletoe hanging between them. He slowly lowered his gaze back to Lance who was now blushing and looking off to the side. He must not have been the one who hung it up if he was surprised by it.

They drifted closer to each other so they were face to face but neither of them made any further move.

“We can always walk away,” Lance said breaking the silence, voice low.

“I know… but it’s tradition isn’t it?”

“ _ Traditiooooon! Tradition!”  _ Lance sang quietly.

Whatever moment they had been having or were about to have was broken when Keith replied, “what the hell was that Lance?”

“Dude, Fiddler on the Roof?” Keith stared blankly back at him. “A super well known musical about Jewish Russians? Oh my god you poor deprived child. Maybe we should just have a movie day where I teach you a thing or two about like… musicals? Movies? Life?”

“How many movies are we talking about here?”

Lance thought for a moment. “Hm, that’s a good question… depends on your knowledge of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings I guess? Other than that, like ten to twenty?”

“I’ve seen every Star Wars movie, because space, but only like half of the Fellowship of the Ring.”

Lance shook his head. “They always play the Sound of Music around Christmas, for whatever goddamn reason, so we can start with that. But for now, Rudolph is calling us!” he cried and pulled Keith into the living room, the mistletoe hanging behind them, forgotten.

 

The following morning, Keith felt extremely disoriented and severely hungover. He hadn’t remembered falling asleep the night before, but somehow he didn’t think it had been in a bed. Had he been so drunk he hadn’t remembered returning to his own apartment?

Inhaling deeply he thought,  _ smells like Lance _ , and buried his head further into the pillow. He shot upright realizing that  _ it smelled like Lance _ and immediately regretted the sudden motion, stomach lurching. Thankfully it was dark in the room, the only light peeking from around the curtains and under the door. Keith’s curtains didn’t block that much light, did they?

After a moment of letting the nausea pass, Keith took a look at his surroundings, eyes adjusting to the dim lighting. There were some NASA posters on the walls as well as some anime artwork, and clothes piled on a chair in the corner. Definitely not Keith’s room.

The smell of bacon hit his nostrils and he was pleased it didn’t kickstart his nausea any more. The memory of Lance telling him he wasn’t prone to hangovers answered his question of who was probably cooking. He didn’t even know what time it was, phone nowhere to be found on the bed or nightstand. It was probably still in the living room. 

Slowly, he made his way out the door, cringing when the light from the hallways shone in his eyes. He could hear Lance singing Christmas songs softly from the kitchen, accompanied with the sizzle of bacon grease. He glanced up and remembered the mistletoe from the night before was still hanging up, mocking him with what could have been if he hadn’t prompted Lance’s innate knowledge of musicals to come through accidentally. Seriously, how did he even think of that when they were practically seconds away from kissing? 

The thought of them almost kissing set Keith’s face on fire, but the lack of it made him start to doubt whether Lance thought of him as more than a friend. 

That thought in itself stopped short when he entered the kitchen, receiving the brightest smile Keith had ever seen when Lance noticed him in the doorway.

“Good morning sunshine!” Keith grunted in response. “Not much of a morning person, are we?”

“Shh,” Keith said and put a finger up against Lance’s incredibly soft lips. “You’re too loud and I’m too hungover.” 

Lance laughed softly. “I’m sorry, I know. Hence the hangover breakfast I’m making for you. Not as good as the one my dad used to make, but this is all we had in the fridge.” 

Keith blinked. “For me?”

“Uh, yea? You mentioned your hangover thing and I was gonna bring it to you in bed, but I guess the couch works too.”

“Oh yea, I-I’ll just go make myself comfortable or something…” Keith said, voice trailing off while he left the room. 

Keith still felt god awful while he sat waiting for Lance to finish breakfast. He decided against turning on the TV and opted to look around for his phone. He spotted it on the coffee table, grabbing it and checking for any messages and also to see how much battery was left. 

It still had 30% and he had three texts and two missed calls from Shiro asking why they hadn’t spoken in a few days and to call him as soon as he could. He’d do that later. 

Gripping the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger, Keith tried to rub his headache away. 

Lance walked in a moment later, carrying two plates of bacon, eggs, toast and made a second trip bringing two mugs of coffee and a couple ibuprofen tablets for Keith. Even through his nausea, Keith was excited to eat something… until he tried to.

The first bite into the toast was fine. The second one however, did not sit well in his stomach and he shot up, running as fast as he could to the bathroom before promptly vomiting into the toilet. He felt hands on his scalp, gathering and pulling his hair back before one hand moved from his head to his back, rubbing circles. 

“Th-thanks,” Keith managed to choke out when he’d caught his breath. “Been awhile since that’s happened.”

“Considering it’s my fault you’re so hungover, it’s the least I could do. Wouldn’t be the first time I held someone’s hair back anyway,” Lance said, but didn’t comment on the fact it was some of the softest hair he’d ever held. 

Lance flushed the toilet and helped Keith lean back against the wall across from it.

“Still, thanks. Um, can I ask how I ended up in your bed?”

Lance pulled out his phone and tapped away at it while he explained. “Both of us fell asleep sometime into the second Rudolph movie. I woke up at like, four a.m. and you were lying against my shoulder awkwardly. It was kind of cute.” He showed Keith his phone, a selfie he had taken of Keith asleep on his shoulder, looking anything but cute on the screen. “After I took this, I carried you into my bedroom so you’d be more comfortable. Also I have blackout curtains.”

“Where’d you sleep?”

Lance rubbed the back of his neck and didn’t meet Keith’s eyes. “Well, I  _ was _ going to just crash in Hunk’s room, but when I’d gotten you into my bed, you uh, wouldn’t let me go. So we both stayed in mine, I just woke up earlier to make breakfast. Mostly I wasn’t sure how you’d take having someone in bed with you when you woke up.”

Keith was hoping and praying the floor would swallow him up at that moment. “Oh my god…” he groaned and hung his head between his knees.

Lance laughed. “It’s alright, I really don’t mind. I honestly prefer not being alone. Also, did you know that you’re very cuddly when you sleep? Kind of like a kitten actually.”

Keith groaned again and was trying to will the floor into opening up and letting him drop into the abyss. He was mortified, mostly because he  _ knew _ he got like that in his sleep. Shiro had complained about it on more than one camping trip.

Thankfully, Lance didn’t say anything further. He knew he sometimes talked in his sleep as well and could only hope he hadn’t said anything on top of the cuddling.

“Think you can stomach some food now?” Lance asked. 

Keith nodded and Lance helped him up, the two of them walking by the traitorous mistletoe again. He was sure Lance was just  _ dying _ to kiss him after puking up his guts.  _ Not _ . It was left hanging, ignored once again.

Lance watched Keith like a hawk while they ate, but after his washroom trip, he felt immensely better and had no problem finishing his food. The two men sat on the couch afterwards, sinking into it.

“Man, that was delicious and desperately needed.”

“Anytime.”

Sighing, Keith rolled his head from its resting place on the back of the couch in Lance’s direction. “I should probably head back to my apartment to shower and change. Thanks for letting me stay, even though I literally live one floor down.”

Lance waved a hand dismissively. “Seriously bro, it was nothing. To be honest, I get lonely when Hunk is gone.”

“Well you’re welcome to visit when he’s gone, just please use the elevator or stairs like a normal person.”

“Never going to let me live that down are you?”

“Probably not. At least definitely not until your ankle has healed.”

“Fair enough.”

“See you later though?” Keith asked, gathering his stuff at the door. 

“See ya later Keithy!”

 

Hunk returned a few hours later to find Lance lying on the couch, face buried in his hands.

“ _ See ya later Keithy _ ,” Lance cried out, startling his roommate. “Can you believe that’s what I said when he left this morning? And don’t even get me started on last night. You and your stupid mistletoe.  _ Me and my stupid mouth! _ ”

Hunk sat down next to Lance and said, “start from the beginning.”

Lance launched into the story of what had happened after they’d left dinner the night before, almost hitting Hunk several times throughout it from his flailing.

“And then I fucking said that when he left!” Lance shrieked.

“It could have been worse. All in all it seems like a good night” 

“Hunk were you even listening? We almost kissed until I opened my big fat mouth.”

Hunk patted Lance on the back comfortingly. “Well in any case, I’m pretty sure he likes you.”

“ _ How? _ ” Lance asked in exasperation.

“You may not see it in yourself, but like, you’re a really fun person to be around. Sure, your personality can come on a bit strong to some, but you also make people feel comfortable without even trying. You’re fairly non-judgemental and your ability to practically never shut up helps in silence if it gets too uncomfortable. Keith seems to have warmed up to you quickly if anything.”

Lance looked up at his best friend, eyes glassy and wet with unshed tears. “Whatever did I do to deserve you?”

Hunk laughed and found Lance lookin at him like that endearing. “Didn’t I just list off reasons why?”

“This is why I don’t go to Pidge with this stuff.”

“That, and she’s also more interested in robots than relationships. But you know she’d be just as kind if she really thought you were upset about something. You just get upset over trivial things most of the time, and have an affinity for crocodile tears.”

“Harsh dude.”

Hunk shrugged. “So do I need to hang more mistletoe?”

“I’ll get back to you on that. Also, why the hallway?”

“I was being hopeful.”

“And if you and I had stepped underneath it this morning?”

Hunk raised an eyebrow. “You think that worries me after Halloween twenty fourteen?”

“Fair enough.”

“But seriously, now that you’re not freaking out, maybe you should plan what to do next?”

Lance thought about it. Maybe more mistletoe wasn’t such a bad idea. Keith had definitely leaned into the almost kiss. He’d also seemed pretty alright with them having shared a bed, more embarrassed by his own actions than anything. Lance just knew he really liked Keith, hoped those feelings were reciprocated, and really, really, wanted to kiss him.

“Shit Hunk, I’m so far gone.”

“Glad you’ve come to terms with that,” Hunk said with a nod of his head. “So, more mistletoe?”

“No, but leave the one you already put up where it is. It might come in handy,” Lance said, missing the mischievous smile his friend had on.

 

The floor below, Keith was having his own problems during the hours after he’d left. He sat on his couch staring at his phone,  _ knowing _ he should finally call Shiro back, but trying to figure out exactly what to make of everything that had happened the night before. 

Taking a deep breath, he tapped the call icon next to Shiro’s name. 

“You know, I was honestly worried you’d died or something,” his brother answered from the other end of the line.

“No you weren’t, otherwise you would’ve come over to check on me already.”

Shiro was silent for a moment before replying, “okay, fine. But you’ve been unusually silent the last few days. What are you trying to hide?”

“Excuse you, I am hiding nothing.”

Keith could practically feel Shiro’s eyebrows being raised in a ‘ _ you’re kidding me, right? _ ’ from over the phone. “You can’t keep a secret to save your life, and when you’re trying to, you just straight up avoid me. Spill or I’ll get Allura to talk to you.”

“His name is Lance and he lives in the apartment above mine.”

“Ah there it is. I take it this ties into having met Pidge?”

“The two are directly correlated. Pidge and Lance are friends.”

“I think I’ve heard her mention him before now that I think about it… wait is he the one Pidge says is the physical embodiment of the Christmas spirit?”

“I believe her exact words to me were ‘he couldn’t be more festive if he shat tinsel’.”

Shiro laughed. “So how did you guys meet?”

“Funny story actually… he may have fallen past my window.”

“Excuse me, what?”

“He fell from his balcony.”

“I am so glad you already mentioned he lives right above you. Third floor falls are usually non-lethal.”

“He walked away with a pretty nasty cut and a sprained ankle. Kinda lucky overall.”

“And you being the natural born people person just rushed in to help?”

“Did I mention I watched him fall  _ literally right past my window _ ? What the hell was I supposed to do?”

“So what happened afterwards? Clearly there’s more given how long you’ve been avoiding my calls.”

Keith debated how much to tell him, and decided to give him the abridged version of the initial incident, including meeting Pidge and realizing who each other were. “Lance didn’t believe the story about you and I getting carried by Allura till I confirmed it was something that happened.”

Shiro made a choking noise at that particular memory. “Allura still brings that up sometimes.”

“Yea, so anyway, that led to them staying for a few hours and then I got invited to dinner for saving Lance’s life or some shit last night.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“I will come all the way over there and give you the look,” Shiro stated and Keith snorted.

“No need, your earlier Allura comment is enough to keep me talking,” Keith replied and then explained what had happened the night before. “I’m just… not sure what to do from here. Like I really like him and I think he likes me? But I’m not sure after the whole mistletoe thing.”

“Did he lean into it?”

“Yes.”

“Then he wanted to kiss you.”

“But-”

“Keith. He. Wanted. To. Kiss. You. From what I’ve been told he just doesn’t have a filter.”

“He really doesn’t,” Keith mumbled.

“So either go up there right now with mistletoe of your own and kiss him, or continue moping around and be single for the rest of your life.”

“Such a loving brother you are.”

“Would you like me to get Allura to tell you?”

“NO GOODBYE SHIRO!” Keith yelled into the phone and hung up. 

He sighed and decided that before he did anything or made any decision involving Lance, he would shower and change since he probably reeked of alcohol and sweat. Though that would mean washing the scent of Lance off him, he knew that it would make him feel better. 

Letting the scalding hot water pound his back, he thought about what to do. He hadn’t known Lance long but in the few days, he’d decided he really liked him. He could be annoying as hell, but he was also just a lot of fun to be around. Lost in thought for the better part of an hour, he eventually robotically finished the rest of his shower routine in cold water and went to his bedroom to change, grabbing the first shirt he found in his closet. Pulling it on, he took a deep breath and wondered why he smelled like Lance. Looking down he realized it was the shirt he’d let the boy upstairs borrow from him. Inhaling the scent, he briefly thought about how creepy that was, then pulled on more clothes and told himself that being blunt was probably his best bet.

He had never been one for subtlety. 

Taking the stairs two at a time, he ran till he was standing in front of apartment 306 once again. He raised his arm to the door, ready to knock and then paused, lowering it once again. He did this a few times and groaned when he thought about what a chicken he was being. He considered Lance a friend at least, and knew he wasn’t going to laugh at his face or anything, but his age old anxiety was keeping him from being as direct as he wanted. 

Eventually he forced himself to knock and immediately felt butterflies in his stomach. If he ran, he could make it to the stairwell before anyone came to the door…

He stopped in his tracks when he briefly looked up and saw what was hanging from the doorframe. Immediately he knew it was Hunk, and couldn’t decide if he was thankful for the big guy or not. 

When the door swung open revealing Lance, Keith’s eyes flicked down to him, realizing he couldn’t back out now. 

“Keith? Did you forget something?” Lance asked, eyebrows raised in surprise at Keith’s random appearance. 

“Um, n-not really?” Keith replied. “Not anything material I just wanted to… to um…” He tried to finish but ended up looking back up at the cursed plant. 

Lance followed his gaze and whispered, “fucking hell, Hunk.”

They looked back towards each other and it was Keith who finally broke the silence by leaning forward ever so slightly and pressing his lips to Lance’s. It only lasted a second, but it was enough to send tingles up his spine.

“I forgot to give you that last night,” Keith said.

“O-oh, is th-that all?” Lance stuttered. 

Watching Lance become flustered from such a small act gave Keith immense satisfaction. 

“That’s really all,” Keith replied. “Unless there’s something else?”

Lance recovered and smirked. “Actually, there’s one more thing,” he said, and closed the distance between them again, grabbing Keith by the shoulders and pulling him in for another kiss. Keith’s hands settled on Lance’s waist, mindful of his wound, Lance’s own hands moving from Keith’s shoulders to his head where he threaded them through his hair. 

After a moment they pulled away from each other and Keith said, “I actually just came up here to tell you I liked you but I guess that this is as good as doing that.”

“Close enough,” Lance said with a shrug. “I was actually going to come to talk to you or invite you up again soon, but I wasn’t expecting you to beat me to it.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been standing out here for the better part of five minutes working up the courage to knock.”

Lance’s face broke out into a wide smile and he laughed. “Actually yes, that does make me feel better.”

Keith pulled Lance in for another kiss if only to wipe the grin off his face. When they pulled away again, they rested their foreheads together. 

Lance decided they’d been standing there in silence too long. “So Keith, given how we met and all and how we’re basically together now-”

“I don’t remember actually agreeing to that yet, but continue,” Keith interrupted. 

“Does this mean that I really  _ fell _ for you?”

Keith glared and headbutted him lightly, earning a quiet noise of pain from Lance before pulling him back with a shake of his head. 

He could feel Lance’s smirk all the way through their next kiss. 

**Author's Note:**

> My sister yelled at me for that ending pun, but I literally could not write this without including it. Like he fucking fell from a third story window, what do you want from me?


End file.
